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Hi! I'm taking a little break and it might take me a few days to reply to comments and emails. I'll be back soon! :)

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Wheat-Free Orange Anise Rolls and Lovely Crafty Gifts!

Thank you for all the fauxfee recommendations! Quite a few of you guys think Teeccino is good, so I'm most excited to try that one first!

Last week I teased you with those Wheat-Free Orange-Anise Rolls that I was having with my Pero fauxfee, so let's not dilly-dally and jump straight to business! These rolls are crusty on the outside thanks to their sugar coating, but they are not overly sweet. They are inspired by Celine's Almond Spelt Sweet Rolls of insane awesomeness, which I have blogged about before. See the picture that I took of Celine's rolls? Now look at the one I took of these anise rolls. Yep. Just call me a one trick pony.

3. Use an electric mixer to beat the dough for about a minute. The dough should not be stiff and crumbly, it should be firm but quite sticky. Thicker than muffin batter, but softer and stickier than a wheat based yeast dough.

4. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F and spray a muffin pan with cooking spray. Scoop about 2 tablespoons of dough into one of the muffin pan cavities (I wish they weren't called cavities, they remind me of dentists!) Watch it for a couple of seconds. If the dough spreads down and to the sides, it means it's too soft. Add a tablespoon or two of brown rice flour to the dough until it complies. The dough should be soft enough to *scoop*, but not too soft that it spreads to the sides. Fill each cavity with about two tablespoons of dough.

5. Place the muffin pan on the stove top (with the stove top off, you're just putting it there so it stays warm!) and sprinkle each roll with plenty of granulated sugar (turbinado works OK, but in this case the evil white stuff works better) If you want to throw a few anise seeds on top for decoration, go for it. Let them rest for 20 minutes.

6. Bake for 18 to 20 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from the oven and transfer the rolls to a cooling rack. Eat them while they're warm! :)

Makes 12 rolls.

NOTE: These aren't as yummy at room temperature or cold. Give them a quick flash in the oven/toaster oven if you need to reheat them.

*nom*

It took me a few weeks to get the hang of wheat-free baking. I found that there's a fine line between a perfect dough and a dough that is too dry or too sticky. The dough for these burger buns/hockey pucks was obviously too dry...

Mmmm, hockey pucks.

On a non-food related note, check out all the crafty gifts I've received lately! Lately? It's been weeks! There's no excuse, I'm just a slowpoke. Bianca sent me this rockin' craftiness that now lives happily in my kitchen:

Kiss my grits! Isn't it super crunky and awesome? It's cross stitch perfection! Such meticulous work! I love it! It lives by the bread maker, and it goes with all the red stuff I have in the kitchen. Score! That picture is blurry, here's a close-up:

Thank you, Bianca!

I also received a fabulous crafty gift from Katie! Check out this bird-tastic pouchy pouch!

Thank you, Katie!

So colorful and fun! This is excellent craftsmanship craftswomanship, people. I can only dream of one day being so skilled with a sowing machine. It's my new makeup pouch, and it carries all my make up: concealer, blush, and lip balm. Lip balm isn't even make up, is it? :P

One more thing before I go burn or break something in the kitchen. When I deleted the gigantor MoFo bundle from google reader, it took along with it a few of my pre-MoFo subscriptions! They got deleted just like that! I only realized yesterday that I have been involuntarily snubbing some of you, but the problem is fixed now and all the missing subscriptions have been restored... I think! Please let me know if I have been involuntarily snubbing you so I can add your blog to my reader again! Kthxbai!

Wait. Is that an actual photo of you without anything blocking your gorgeous face? Just sitting up there at the top of your blog? Why have I never noticed that before? And I just found the "about me" page with a bigger version. Excellent.

The rolls, minus the anise seeds, look and sound like they should be sitting in front of me this minute, waiting for me to finish typing and take a big bite.

Those rolls looks great! My son is newly wheat free and potato free-like (meaning he can tolerate a little but of potato starch but it has to be just a little bit) and so I am looking for good recipes we can both eat! And I *love* the crafty things. Before the RA took hold I was very crafty. Now that the meds and lifestyle changes have started helping I need to start again....

Those look like perfect rolls to me! I am still trying to get the hang of GF baking. . . it's a loooong learning process. And I *just* learned to like fennel (raw), but anise is not my bag. . . will have to try something else instead if I ever mix up those rolls.

Sorry to say I am not in the least crafty--but hopefully chocolate will compensate. "KTHXBAI"--love it! ;)

Those rolls look wonderful! I still have a lot to learn when it comes to wheat-free cooking! Right now I'm back to playing with spelt. You did get some happy, crafty gifts. If you're interested in more such things, I'm thinking about hosting some swaps starting in February. I really like those square plates of yours. I must keep my eyes peeled for such things! We have a few and it's so nice to mix up shapes in the kitchen...maybe that's just me.

Those rolls look so perfect! Awesome flavour combination!You got some pretty wonderful gifts. I love that pouch.The same thing happened to me and my reader. I accidentially deleted so many blog subscriptions and have no idea how that happened.Weird.